Durga Puja ends today

The five-day Durga Puja, the largest religious festival of the minority Hindu community, ends today with the immersion of the idol of Goddess Durga across Bangladesh, including the capital.

Devotees thronged puja mandaps on the last day of the festival, Bijoya Dashami, offering flowers to the goddess Durga and seeking her blessings.

Puja mandaps across the country were placed with beautiful idols, showcasing the goddess in all her glory.

Bijoya Dashami is a special ceremony of reaffirming peace and good relations among people.

On this day, families visit each other to share sweetmeats. Married Hindu women put vermilion on each other's foreheads on the occasion.

Around 33,355 puja mandaps across the country, including the capital, are celebrating the religious festival this year.

In the capital, thousands of people are set to throng the Buriganga River to perform the festival’s final ritual—the immersion of the idol of Goddess Durga.

Devotees with tearful eyes will bid farewell to the mother deity and her children – Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik and Ganesh—through the immersion of their idols in the water, wishing for Durga’s return next year.

Meanwhile, strict security measures are in place so that Durga Puja ends peacefully.

The five-day festival started on September 28 with the incarnation (Bodhon) of the Goddess Durga, marking Sashthi.

Durga Puja, the annual Hindu festival also known as Sharadiya (autumnal) Durga Utsab, is the worship of "Shakti", the divine force, embodied in goddess Durga.
It symbolises the battle between good and evil, where the dark forces eventually succumb to the divine.